... >> this is al jazeera america live in new york city president obama announces changes to the nation's secret surveillance programs, but it may not be enough to please critics. new information from the vatican that pope benedict, xvi defrocked. 400 priests for molesting children. the family of an ohio inmate whose execution took an unusual long time, they say the procedure was cruel and unusual. a drought emergency heightening fire dangers that are already forcing people to evacuate their homes.

4:01 pm

as we begin this hour with breaking news, reports of a shooting at or near a school in north philadelphia. we are hearing that this happened at the delaware valley charter school, that apparently two people have been shot we will get additional information on this of course and update you as soon as we get that information. president obama is ordering the national security agency to make changes to the electronic surveillance programs. speaking at the justice department, the president said he will emmed the massive phone records collection program as it currently exists. he also ordered the nsa to stop spying on friendly world leaders but the president didn't scrap the system entirely. what i did not do is stop these programs wholesale. not only because i felted that they made us more secure but because nothing in that initial

4:02 pm

review and nothing that i have learned since indicated that our intelligence committee has violated the law or is scav lear mike vac e viqui. >> for some critics, it's not going to be enough although there are plenty of people on capitol hillary acting positively. a lot of what the president has proposed is going to have to go through capitol hill even mentioning edward snowden twice

4:03 pm

on those kinds of cable abilities. let's look the 215 program, that collection of meta data millions upon billions of records kept by the national security agency. the president says he wants to take two immediate steps right now. first of all, judicial review, any time the intelligence committee or law enforcement wants to go fwa now he says then to go to thefiesa court. there can be three steps between a suspect or suspected terrorist and the individual, the number that they are looking for. now, he wants to reduce that to two to further limit those searchs of the meta data. other than that, he says he wants to take it out of the

4:04 pm

hands 10 as the president said, there are clear problems with both of that. >> that's not a switch that's going to be turned on overnight. you mention the collection or the eavesdropping telephone calls, cell phones, of course, we heard about angela merkel last year, france with a olan, brazilian leaders and others outraged, the president intimated some of that may be feigned but he says dozens of close al aisles will no longer be listening to those phone calls. at a time fbi can say we need this information. no judicial review there. >> that's larger gob to be unchanged, the president declining to make significant changes that instead promising more openness and more trans piece allowing those companies

4:05 pm

to divulge what kind of information or in broad terms what kind of information the government is asking for. so much of it goes to congress. we have heard some positive reaction from both sides of the aisle today, civil libertarians, mixed reaction, many disappointed that the president didn't go farther but these are the proposals. now, march 28th, a deadline, a fisa law gets reauthorized in congress. >> appreciate it. at the whitehouse, mike, appreciate it. the changes president announced today were largely driven by a series of leaks from edward snowden. david shuster is here with more. david? >> there has been no direct reaction yet from edward snowden to the speech but his supporters are claiming the changes announced today by president obama would have never happened without snowden. >> he is one of the most famous government whistle blowers in desk aids and yet edward snowden, a computer specialist, former nsa contractor began his leaks just seven months ago the

4:06 pm

national security agency has been collecting phone records of millions of american verizon customers. the next day, the washington post revealed leaks of an internet surveillance program. nine companies had been giving direct access to all user data. president obama said the math was simple. >> you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy he identified himself as the former nsa contractor fueling the now public debate. >> i sit in my desk certainly had the authority to wiretap anyone, even if you are not doing anything wrong, you are being watched and recorded. >> and he added that nearly everything can be held

4:07 pm

indefinitely the storage capa e capability increases every year. in late june, the caguardian reported that the british version another story was working with the nsa to track data around the globe and that the nsa was secretly help to go pay for it the washington post reported an internal audit showed the agency had broken its own privacy regulations more than 2700 times. president obama announced a new review of the nsa but insisted. >> he has been charged with three felonies. he can come here, appear before the court with a lawyer. >> the embarrassasments

4:08 pm

continued. in october, a german newspaper reported snowed eneden document indicated that they had been listening to angela merkel. then the washington post reported the nsa had typed into the maven communication length if underscored the nsa's ability to spy on tech power hours. snowden told the washington post he had already won because as many leaks had fueled a vigorous and high-profile public debate. he indicates he planned to feed them to the media bit by bit to keep the focus on government surveillance. >> david, thank you. you i spoke to the general i asked him who should hold the in the meta data the nsa stores? >> it's assumed if congress en

4:09 pm

acted a meta data program meaning nsa no longer holds it, they would require the phone companies to see hold it for five years why does the records of everyone we talked to and who calls up and how long we speak to we did nothing wrong. there is no reason for the state to be keeping it or requiring that it can kept. only to be able to to have done things that are wrong, plotting terrorist attacks should be monitored for surveillance in a healthy and democratific situation. >> we will show you more of the interview at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. a new report revealing that pope benedict, 16th defrocked nearly 400 peefts for molesting children. it comes as the vatican has faced scrutiny this week owning

4:10 pm

up to allegations of pedophilia. john terri is following this story. >> that's bit of a surprise. right? >> it is a surprise he is heeding a proverb life. a man through his papacy was dogged by the child abuse scandal. people wouldn't let it rest for him. they were going after him. you have to remember about ratsinger. he is a they are lodgean. his previous job -- i always have to write this down. his previous job prior to becoming pope was the pre-alaskan for the congregation of the doctorine of the faith. he was the heavy guy. he wasn't really friendlier. he didn't come across friendly. people liked him because he was

4:11 pm

the pope. they respected and loved him he said these words. the christmas speech. he said pedophilia was in conformity with man and children. he was not trying to say it's okay. but in his they arecratic way, he got into a lot of trouble. so, now, to find that he is defrocked, which means sacked, 400 priests in just two years is remarkable. >> you will be back at 6 w7 more on this? >> yeah. >> the family of an ohio inmate whose execution took an unusual long time says it plans to file a lawsuit dennis mcguire was put today for the rape and stabbing death and his execution was performed using an untried method of lethal injection. witnesses say he made loud

4:12 pm

noises during the execution. his family called it cruel and unusual. joinings from dayton ohio is josh swiger. he writes to the dayton daily news and was one of the reporters who witnessed the execution. josh, good to see you. were in the room at this execution. would you please describe the scene? >> yes. there were two rooms, one with mr. mcguire, himself, the other with the family of both mr. mcguire and his victim, joyce stewart. they brought him in to the separateroom behind a payne of glass. he told the family of joyce stewart, thank you for a letter he apparently received, told his children that he loved them. he said i am going to heaven. i will see you there when you

4:13 pm

come as he administered the drugs, he yelled i love you several times to his son and daughter. and quickly afterwards, his eyes rolled back in his head and he appeared to fall asleep for several minutes, about five minutes, he laid motionless there it was crying from his family and no sounds from the victim's family. five minutes later, he began to con vuls slightly. there were gasps, snorts like a violent snore. they would be intermittent, every 30 seconds or so. >> went on for about 10 minutes, at which point he ceased to move throughout the entire time the family of the victim didn't say a thing. they were motion less and quite the entire time, his family was sobbing quite loudly as you can imagine. they declared him dead at 10:53

4:14 pm

a.m. yesterday. >> what did you think when you were listening to the snorting as you describe it in the attempts? it was highly with unusual. it wasn't what they said was going to happen there is some reaction from the inmates early on. within five minutes, they are ceasing to move. so is the inaction followed by the gasping was highly unusual according to the people who have seen dozens of these things i have spoke to. >> you spoke to mcguire's family shortly after. if you would, describe what they had to say and what you saw from

4:15 pm

them in terms of reaction? >> mcguiree's family was in grief. one said oh, my god. at one point, they said how could this take so long? they made reference to being told that it would take about five minutes when the whole procedure from beginning to end was about 25 minutes. more than 20s minutes. >> i spoke them this morning t the whole procedure, yes. there was, for the time when the injection started flowing to the time of the deckclaration of death was about 25 minutes. >> did you get an opportunity to talk to the family of the victim? >> no. reached out to the family of the victim. they wrote a statement that was released afterwards. there was anticipation, his attorneys had end -- had threatened that the drugs they were using was going to cause an

4:16 pm

air hunger, annizing and terrifying. the judge struck that down and allowed the execution to proceed. the victim's family responded to that beforehand even saying whatever agony he might feel is nothing compared to what their sister felt? >> josh, appreciate it. josh swag art, he rights for the dayton daily news for us. josh, thank you. california's governor has declared a drought emergency as the state deals with the worst dry spell in a sent try. the deckclaration comes as a huge wildfire races in the los angeles area. they have rages -- rages in the los angeles area. officials say it is 30% contained. crews are making progress but thousands of people are still being kept away from their homes. gavlts show no immediate end to the drought increasing the danger for more fires. hopefully it will rain eventually but in the meantime, we have to do our part, make it easier to transfer water from

4:17 pm

one part of the state to the other. so farmers who farm the crops can keep them alive. >> they urge residents to reduce their water use by 20%. the sdooe declaration allows california to seek help from the government to battle the drought. syria's main political opposition has delayed a vote, deciding whether to meet face to face with the assad government next week. global powers are pushing to get both sides to meet at a summit in general eve a one group already opted out. the syria coalition is deciding. john kerry says a transitional government is being put in place. >> i think they can bluster and protest put out distortions. the bottom line is, we are going to geneva to implement geneva 1. if assad doesn't do that, he will invite greater response in various ways from various people

4:18 pm

over a period of time anita mcnaught has the latest? >> for more than eight hours of talking with each other discussing and arguing, the 77 members of the syrian national coalition who turned up for this meeting have decided they doesn't have a proper meeting at all, couldn't have a proper meeting. so they have called it quits for the day and they are going to reconvene again in the morning. one is a healing process between the 44 members who have withdrawn from the coalition on the grounds of ideological differences over the participation in geneva and a procedurally decision over how many people they actually need to take a vote on whether to participate in geneva or not. there are people who feel that in order for the decision to have weight -- and it is a mome momentous decision, for many the most important decision the syrian national coalition has to take, it means that there must be a significant number of members participating in that vote. they can't if they have so many

4:19 pm

people absent and they can't if they have so many people refusing to participate. these issues they are trying work through and they haven't made a break through yet. >> anita mcnaught reporting. coming up, a security guard speaking out saying a deadly shooting at a colorado high school where he worked could have been prevented and a warning for smokers today. the news disease linked to lighting up.

4:20 pm

>> from our headquarters in new york, here are the headlines this hour.

4:21 pm

>> al jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour. >> a deal in the senate may be at hand and just in the nick of time. >> thousands of new yorkers are marching in solidarity. >> we're following multiple developments on syria at this hour. >> every hour from reporters stationed around the world and across the country. >> only on al jazeera america. less than an month ago, carl pearson killed one shoot end outside of benbrook, colorado. now, a securities guard who worked at the school is speaking out saying the attack cavb could have been prevented. paul beman is more live. paul? >> reporter: tony, that's right. these comments are dividing this community here, that security guard saying the school should have and could have done more to present that shooting on december 13th. as you mentioned, that's when

4:22 pm

carl pearson stormed the school armed with a shotgun, machete and malatov cocktails. pearson died of a self inflicted wound two minutes after the incidents began. the security guard, cameron rust, on his facebook page, he made a lengthy posting detailing what he says happened before and after the shooting. he says the school security team told officials about the death threats he had made against his debate coach, his intended target that day and, also, that pearson had been looking up things on his computer, on his laptop in the school calf tefec russ says the school was not responsibility for his decisions, they are responsible, he says, for a lack of action. tony, let me read awe couple of things off of this facebook page where russ says there is an individual such as carl pearson, a known threat for a long time and should have gotten the necessary help and appropriate resources should have been

4:23 pm

involved. he goes on to say there were statements made by the administration that he overheard such as, quote, we will read about that kid, carl pearson, in the news some day. it just won't be at arapaho. he said the administration needs to be held accountable, demand change and that they need to be part of the solution going forward. so some pretty strong words here from this paul beaman for us in denver. today marks the 20th anniversary of a northridge california earthquake. it was one of the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history. 57 died. thousands were injured. a lot has changed that may give the public advanced warnings. jennifer london has the story >> reporter: >> when the earthquake hit at 431, we were sound asleep. the thing that woke me up was my wife screaming.

4:24 pm

the volume was hor endous and it stopped and there was this death silence for about a second and then you could start hearing everybody screaming in the complex. >> 20 years ago, robb and don woke um and his three story building pancaked on him? >> it looked like a two-story building when it was done. the fire department drove past us thinking it's a two-story building. let's keep going. >> it hadshift eight feet and dropped 10. >>ty tied bed sheets together and lowered my wife down to the second story. they know i claimed down. we had neighbors that we helped to get down as well. >> he was a gas company technician so he turned off the building's gas main and started digging in the rubble to try to reach an elderly neighbor. >> we dug out the rest of the rubbled and i climbed through to see i was in her burp and she was in bed with half of the building on top of her. >> she was one of 16 people who died in his building that day.

4:25 pm

the northridge earthquake killed 57. 22,000 were left homeless. the victims of the 6.7 magnitude quake had no warning. two decades later -- >> we really dodged a bullet. >> thomas heaton is an engineer of sizemology a lot cal tech. he said there is a system that could give camerans a heads-up before the shaking starts. the system would send an alert to your smart phone showing you where the quake began and how soon it will reach your location as well as the duration and intensity of the shaking you can expect. >> the thing people don't like about earthquakes is when it starts to shake, you have no idea what's going to come. this system is going to tell you, most likely time, it's going to tell you, relax. enl joy it. it's okay. >> a similar system is online and working in japan. in california, it's still only a prototype. heaton has an widea why it's no

4:26 pm

in use here? >> if washington, d.c. would enter been destroyed by an earthquake, we would have had a system. >> heatton and cal tech will refine the system that could give californians what they have never had before: time to prepare. >> it's the ability to turn our science into something that's useful to everybody else. >> i think a warning system today that would give me a 45-second head start, as it were, would be beneficial. >> an understatement from a survivor of the most deadly earthquake to hit california in 20 years. jennifer london, al jazeera, northridge california. >> on wall street today, a mixed day for stocks, the dow finishing higher, gaining 41 points. the nasdaq lost ground for the week. both the dow and the nasdaq daq were higher. the market has closed monday for the martin luther king holiday.

4:27 pm

>> ups says extra demand forced them to spend more to get customers shipped last month. you will recall ups said overwhelming volume was the reason it failed to make deliveries in time for christmas. a policy for the job market. listen to this, the labor department says the number of americans who voluntarily quit their jobs ticked up to a five-year high. economists say that is a sign workers are increasingly confident they can find another position. ali velshi will talk to some of the most important people in business and finance at the world economic forum in davos next week. see his reports throughout the day and on his program "real money" right here on al jazeera america. the president is making changes to the nsa but that won't affect private companies who collect data. we will take a look at who and what they are monitoring. russia's vladimir putin says homosexuals are not banned but

4:28 pm

it is the comment that he made after that that is raising eyebrows. the winter tradition you will want to see. look at this. tens of thousands of people in south korea ice fishing side-by-side.

4:29 pm

4:30 pm

welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at top stories. we want to update you the breaking news about philadelphia police who say a gunmen -- look at live pictures. we don't have them. they say shot two people police say a parent should not go to the school. that's the notice right now. we will have more information to get the latest pictures for you soon as we can. a document obtained by the associated press shows pope benedict xvi, defrocked 400 priests over a two-year span for molesting children. the statistics show a dramatic

4:31 pm

increase. al ohio inmate took 26 minutes to die in which he gasnd repeatedly. he was executed with a never-before-tried combination of lethal drugs. the changes to the nsa atooed by president obama today. let's bring in daniel elsburg, an author who in 1969 leaked top secret documents pertaining to the vietnam war and the pentagon papers. daniel elsburg, good to have you. thanks for being here? >> thank you. ? >> it was pretty much what we have been led to expect. it wasn't as disappointing as it was when i first heard it. basically, the president is doing a pr job to restore

4:32 pm

confidence he is continuing essentially without change. it doesn't deserve that conf confidence. the reassurance we heard from him today is "trust me." well, that's really not good enough. the new yo"new york times" yest said -- explaining how he was continuing programs that he had criticized when he was a senator a former aide to obama says he trusts himself with powers that he didn't trust george w. bush with he was right about bush. he is wrong about himself. as an american who has lived now 82 years, i don't trust obama with those absolute absolute powers or hillary clinton for that matter or romney nor me or you. this ind of power is corrupting. mr. obama has been corrupted and intoxicated by the secrets he

has been exposed to for these last years. >> mr. ellsberg -- the, i'm paraphrasing here, says the program has the potential to a terrorist attack. do you take him at his word? i don't know what doesn't have the potential. what various reports have shown and the president has not contradicted, they have been unable to come up with one terrorist event over the last eight or nine years that has been prevented by this met a data program which has been there all the time. first, they claim 57ents then they came down to 1. the 1 turned out to be, by the way, not a terrorist plot but a -- money that a cab driver sent at one point. >> that's the one thing they came up with. the president wasn't able to come up with any other example. his own review board recommended

4:34 pm

dismantling of this entire bulk program on the grounds it was unconestimatedtuittutional and had no effect. he is talking about where to store this data which he is trying to collect. they shouldn't need a storage place for that. the existes of that in our fourth amendment right to privacy without a warrant. >> your understanding of the president's panel that reviewed the program is that the panel recommended ending the meta data program? is that your understanding of the recommendation? >> absolutely. they certainly did that and very probably, this privacy panel that's going to come out with results in a matter of weeks or a month or two, he wanted to pre-empt that because they will probably predict -- they will probably recommend the same thing as have members of the judiciary committee in congress.

he wanted to get his decisions out about two different panels tell him to end that program. but, you know, they put so much emphasis on its only meta data. why should we believe that? as a matter of fact, russell tition, who was involved in these programs when he was in the nsa, some years ago says they were lying then and are lying now. i heard him say that today when he says they are not taking content. "the guardian" revealed that they are taking in 200 million text messages a day, text messages are content. >> that's not just the meta data than when mr. clapper, the director much national intelligence told us oath and in front of the senate, we are not collecting any sort of data on hundreds of millions of americans. >> that was a lie and i think there is every reason to believe

4:36 pm

they are lying now. >> mr. elsberg, we appreciate your time. thanks for talking to us. >> thank you president obama's announcement won't affect the data collecting done by private firms. some monitor in ways the nsa never could. al jazeera science and technology correspondent jacob ward is live in san francisco. jacob, what have you discovered? >> reporter: >> reporter: well, tony, google, facebook and the thousands of other startups that seek to join their ranks every year are already doing everything that a sur vail answer state could possibly want. they are monitoring our behavior and communications and moment by moment actions in every room of the house. >> edward snowden's leaks continue to reveal the scope of the surveillance leaks but it's open market for data that users give up every day by checking in on foursquare and posting tweets with their phones. >> google brought a company that makes a device which can tell

4:37 pm

when you are home the nest thermostat uses the information to turn the heat on and off. the company's private policies is it will only ever use the information to improve services but if this came with an nsa logo, you would probably drown it in the bathtub. >> the american civil lib we cantize tease of northern california, says tech companies make it possible. the laws about what the government can collect are hopelessly loose and outdated. >> most of our privacy protection haven't been updated since the mid 1980s. companies have really been able to collect as much information as they want and the government has now been able to reach into this treasure drove of data with very little oversight. >> the biggest tech companies collect and use this information. think of google and facebook tracking web active tip and selling as tailored to you. each new product can pose a risk

4:38 pm

to their relationship with customers. >> they fully understand a relationship that is based upon trust and if they exploit that trust in ways that make their customers uncomfortable, the customers leave. >> companies like google sought to defend their reputations about new laws seek to enforce trans parents. one was the right to know act. it was based upon european union law that requires companies like google to reveal to customers exactly what data the companies collect and how the data is used. the proposed law died in the face of overwhelming opposition from the tech companies that objected so strenuously to the nsa's behavior.

4:39 pm

without any help or any rules from the government. is it took a supreme court ruling and an act of congress. now, the law is again years behind the new technology and the companies that track us wherever we go and whatever we do. >> tony, really, today's speech from the president doesn't really change any of this. there was some mention of google and facebook and perhaps warehousing meta data and some sort of private container. it's good to know that the companies that nobody could have imagined a few years ago are directing more than the meta data we talked about. >> jacob ward for uspom says the

4:40 pm

government will not hold on to meta data. what is it when you brake it down? imagine you are making a phone call from new york to someone in los angeles. your call wouldn't be recorded. it would not, but where you are calling from, your phone number and the number for the person you are calling and how long you speak will be recorded. take that, multiply it by hundreds of thousands of calls or texts and it's easy to then paint a picture of where you go and who you speak to. okay. big news today about the company blamed for tainting the water supply for hundreds of thousands of people in west virginia. it has filed for bankruptcy. robert ray is in charleston, west virginia. what are you hearing about this company, freedom industries? >> reporter: freedom industries founded in 1986 are in deep

4:41 pm

trouble. they have filed for bankruptcy. let me tick down some of the numbers we have gotten from the actual filing. they owe $2.4 million to the irs. they have $90,000 in debt and property taxes to the county here they owe $3.66 million to its tom 20 creditors and in the past week since the chemical spill, they have over 2 dozen lawsuits filed against them. so a week later, after the accidents on the river that has caused about 300,000 people for some time to not be able to drink the water, bathe in the water, they filed bankruptcy today we talked to a speaks person earlier where she con confirmed and we called the company's head squares where a somber person answered the phone and said we have filed for bankruptcy. >> they said they will not answer any other questions. they have no comment. she said that repeatedlyly. so very little information we can get from the company as far as how they are going to move forward.

4:42 pm

we also know this little interesting fact that, that on december 31st the company was actually purchased by chem stream holdings, now the sole owner of freedom industries. so, the new owner clearly sidewhacked with what has overheard in the past few weeks. i am sure at this turmoil at freedom industries today, specifically with the new owner, as many people here are trying to take showers, drink the water, the cd c warning pregnant women to perhaps not drink the water, doctors that we have talked to and the hospital behind us have also warned that they don't believe that the water is safe. some of the doctors even saying that dialogistsers and infants on formula should not drink the water. so a lot of moving parts here today in charleston, west virginia. the story keeps on getting more viveting as people here are still not quite sure whether all is well. tony? >> robert, appreciate it. robert ray for us in charleston west virginia.

4:43 pm

16 people were killed today in a bombing in a restaurant in kabul. the afghan government says three suicide bombers were involved. it happened at a neighborhood home to several embassies and foreign consulit's a. the taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. russia president vladimir putin said it is okay to be gay. just don't tell the children. just weeks before the start of the olympic games in sochi. >> yes. the former -- >> if you think that i created they had uniform, you are strongly misguided. we aren't banning anything. we aren't rounding up anyone. we have no criminal punishment for such relations unlike many other countries. so one can feel relaxed about please leave the children in peace. >> gay rights have become a con tentious issue because russia passed a law last year prohibiting the propagandaa of non-traditional sexual practices among minors. an amazing story. one of the last surviving japanese world war ii veterans

4:44 pm

has died. an intelligence officer for the imperial army hid in a filipino jungle for 29 years after the war, refusing to surrender. he didn't come out of hiding until his 52nd birthday when a former commander reversed his orders to stay behind and to spy on american troops, and now, for a look at news, headlines from across the united states, david shuster is here with that. david? >> reporter: the immunity negotiations have begun in new jersey over the george washington lane bridge closew. a state panel, 17 subpoenas to people in three different government agencies that were involved. david wildstein, a former appointee of chris christie who helped carry out the closew said he will share information if he is granted immunity from prosecution. he and before a state panel last week and cited his rights against self incrimination. prosecutors will make the decision on any immunity deals

4:45 pm

are refusing to comment. there is a new report that provides a few more reasons to stop smoking or never start. this report lists more health problems scientists have linked with smoking including liver and colorectal, diabetes and erectile dysfunction. the latest additions of the smoking hazards come 15 years after doctors first warned the habit could be fatal. >> the date we call upon all americans to continue to work to advance this old and noble cause as americans we know we can achieve great things when with dedicate ourselves to a mission. >> there is good news in the report. the number of adults lighting up has dropped to 18% of the population compared to 42% in 1964. in the last 50 years, the surgeong general estimates 20 million people have died from smoking related props and in the last two decades, 100,000 much

4:46 pm

those deaths have been children who died of complied cakes linked to second hand smoke. >> there is a new contact lens that can help track diabetes. the breakthrough comes from the tech giant, google. the company says the contact did would replace the invasive finger prick used to test blood sugar levels. users will be able to monitor those levels from tears produced by the contacts. the technology is expected to be on the market within five years. >> amazing. >> no idea where this technology is going to take us. do we tens of thousands of pieces ice fishing, most side-by-side. some wearing is that right sleeves. harry faucet gives us a look at this cold winter tradition >> reporter: a winter tradition not just for a few enthusiasts.

4:47 pm

tens of thousands come every day, each with his or her own individual fishing style through the frozen stretch of rivera couple of hours' drive from seoul. >> it's fun. sometimes we come here twice a year. the whole family there is the fun of eating as well. >> the common factor in the hunt for the trout, the need for patience, rewarded with the rifle of the fish truck fish are added to the damned off river. it's about being in the river at the right time. >> i have three of them if that's not enough of at that challenge, you can try this. it's cold enough. let alone dressed like these days. in case levels weren't high

4:48 pm

enough, success means a wet fish down. >> after the catching, the eating. fish can be consumed roasted, raw, or for the brave. the festival ever more important to the economy. >> 1.4 million people are expected to come $60 million for the local economy. for many, it is the perfect way to al jazeera, south korea. our oscar arrest nominated movies lacking roles for women is that actually good for the bottom line? we will examine that. >> in new york for making moonshine, making a big

4:49 pm

comeback. high school diploma >> but a failing grade can mean loosing it all... >> i don't know how my life would look, if i would get deported... >> will they make it in america? >> i have a chance... >> i learn america

4:50 pm

real reporting that brings you the world. >> this is a pretty dangerous trip. >> security in beirut is tight. >> more reporters. >> they don't have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab.

4:51 pm

>> more bureaus, more stories. >> this is where the typhoon came ashore. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. >> al jazeera, nairobi. >> on the turkey-syria border. >> venezuela. >> beijing. >> kabul. >> hong kong. >> ukraine. >> the artic. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. >> a movie rating is typically a measure of things like violence, profanity and sex but there's a way to measure whether films are giving intelligent roles to women and oscar nominees have often failed that test. ho you this year's best picture nominees are stacking up. what did you find out about this test here? >> it's a very interesting test, tony, some film critics and women's rights advocates use what's called the beck tehtel t named after allison bechtel.

4:52 pm

they have to have two female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. it started as a joke in a comic strip and has taken off. there is a website that rates 5,000 films and so personnel that with the oscar nominees just announced, people are ranking those films. based upon the criteria, the nine best picture nominees have mixed results. american hustle, filiminia, dallas briars club and nebraska have. captain phillips, the wolfe of suite, her and 12 years a slave fail. gravity is hard to classify because it features only two main characters, a man and a woman. some interesting notes if you go back through the last six years, looking at a pool of roughly 1700 films, there is an interesting trend. movies failing the test make more money. so based upon this test, there is a long way to go for a gender equality in films. one critic told me the bechtel

4:53 pm

test sets a low bar. she wants more women to write, direct and act in films. people are paying attention in sweeden. some cinemas are now requiring that movies pass the bechtel tell if they want to get the highest rating, an a. >> i will tell you this, my favorite movie is "american hustle" the women in that movie were boss, strong. >> i need to check that out. >> all right. the word moonshine makes people think prohibition eras, bootleggers mixing up bathtub licker but it is alive and well in brooklyn. it's been the subject of poetry and prohibition, wisconsiny. >> of all of the crimes that ever has been, selling whiskey is the greatest sin. >> from 19018 to 1923, it made

4:54 pm

all alcohol illegal but moonshiners and bootleggers thrived. >> collins spoolman is one modern distiller bringing a piece of of that history back to brooklyn. >> up until this point in history, people have this perception of moonshining as something that happens kind of in the hills of appalachia where i grew up. it happened a lot in urban areas philadelphia and new york city. >> spoolman grows some of the corn and barley to make his whiskey right here. he has written a book teaching people how to make the stuff at home. >> it is american history going all the way back to the first still all the way through the british colonial era and civil war to the craft movement happening in almost all 50 states. >> aircraft movement that's taking off with more than 400 small distilleries opened over the last decade. >> prohibition ended more than

4:55 pm

eighty years ago but whiskey distilling didn't come back until 2010. new laws that let mom and pop distilleries like this one sell to customers have made the industry boom. sarah ludington and her husband run the stillhouse and sell out of their tasting room. >> after the firmentation we put it in the still and it's coming out here as spirits. so that's our malt whiskey. >> they are one of 11 distilleries popped up in new york city in the last four years. >> i had to sort of explain the whole picture to people like, yes, it's just us. my husband makes it. i sell it. it's small by batch. we distill everything ourselves. now, i think people are aware of it and they are seeking us out. >> they say it's the same local organic movement that has attracted people back. >> a way to further connect with people and reinforce the

4:56 pm

relationship that distillers have with agriculture, it was a way for farmers to convert their crop into something they could sell much more easily that's why up until sort of the 1900s was the primary american drink. >> an american drink that's making a big comeback. one batch at a time. kaylynn ford, al jazeera new york. >> dave warren is here with a forecast. stay with us. this is al jazeera.

4:57 pm

4:58 pm

we should see storms this time of year adding to the snowpack. there is the snow, very little of it. you look for that number to increase until about april 1st. >> that's when on average it starts to melt. about 10% of average now. we need a few more storms. going into canada, in the pacific tracking well to the north. over the pacific northwest. >> feeds that dry air into

4:59 pm

southern california. bill will die down. the wind looks to be dying down. >> will help. it won't hurt. they are going well up into alaska and canada. warm and dry weather. >> continues across the southwest. arctic air, another shot in the north as it moves east, to the midwest. seeing snow. it will intensify to the storm just off of the coast. it looks to be a little far to the east to give any significant rain or snow this weekend to the mid atlantic on the northeast. >> that's saturday and sunday. now, the storms will continue to track up into canada and into the south. not much of a change in the wiethe pattern here over the next one to two weeks. these temperatures will continue to drop, single digitals now with wind chills below zero. we will see some improvement by the end of the weekend. a look at the headlines is am coming up next.

5:00 pm

this is valjavec live from new york city. u.s. intelligence agencies have new marching orders. president obama announced new guidelines for government surveillance activities. this follows months of revelations that the nsa spied on world leaders and routinely collected data on millions of people. the u.n. says four employees are missing after a deadline attack on a restaurant in the afghan capital, kabul. authorities say 16 people were killed. the taliban has issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, a document obtained by the associated press shows that in just two years, pope benedict xvi, defract nearly